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The Wire
' |image= |series= |production=40512-442 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Robert Hewitt Wolfe |director=Kim Friedman |imdbref=tt0708648 |guests=Andrew J. Robinson as Garak, Paul Dooley as Enabran Tain, Jimmie F. Skaggs as Glinn Boheeka, Ann H. Gillespie as Jabara |previous_production=The Maquis Part 2 |next_production=Crossover |episode=DS9 S02E22 |airdate=8 May 1994 |previous_release=(DS9) The Maquis Part 2 (Overall) Bloodlines |next_release=(DS9) Crossover (Overall) Emergence |story_date(s)=Unknown (2370) |previous_story= Emergence Bloodlines |next_story= Preemptive Strike Emergence }} =Summary= After an irritable Garak collapses with a seizure while in Quark's, Bashir discovers an implant in the brain of DS9's only Cardassian merchant. The doctor presses Garak for an explanation until the tailor finally reveals its purpose. On Cardassia he was entrusted with certain information too sensitive ever to reveal. Because of this he was given an implant that could re- lease vast amounts of pleasure-causing endorphins, thereby ensuring that he would never break under torture. For the past two years Garak has used them constantly to cope with life on the station. Now they're breaking down, but his body has become accustomed to the higher endorphin levels. Bashir convinces Garak to turn off the device, promising to help him through whatever happens afterward. In the delirium that follows, Garak weeps, rages, and spins tales of the reason for his exile. In one he mentions the person who gave him the implant, Enabran Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order - Cardassia's covert intelligence agency. Desperate to help the rapidly deteriorating Garak, Bashir goes to see Tain for the information he needs. Tain gladly supplies it, stating that he wants Garak to live a long, miserable life. In short order, Garak recovers. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # In this episode Garak hires Quark to procure another implant along with schematics for its installation. Presumably Garak is going to try to replace his defective implant. While Bashir does not know what Garak is attempting to procure from Quark, he does see the two talking, and the good doctor mentions this fact to Odo. Odo says that would explain why Quark has sent several coded messages to Cardassia Prime. Early the next morning, Odo and Bashir eavesdrop on a subspace conversation between a Cardassian named Boheeka and Quark. During the conversation Quark tells Boheeka that he needs a piece of Cardassian biotechnology. Boheeka asks what it is. Quark has only the requisition code. After punching the requisition code into his terminal, Boheeka is aghast because the implant and even its requisition code are classified by the Obsidian Order. This conversation helps the plot along. Obviously now Odo and Bashir know what Garak wanted. Also, the conversation introduces us to the Obsidian Order. It does invoke a certain puzzlement, however. Why did Quark make all those other coded calls to Cardassia Prime? Couldn’t he find anyone else who was willing to punch in the requestion code and look the device in the computer? The device, and information about it, may only be available on Cardassia Prime. # At one point Garak tells Bashir that living on the station is torture for him. It’s too cold. It’s too bright. Obviously Bashir wasn’t listening, because as Garak convalesces, we see all the lights in the room on full, and Bashir appears to be comfortable enough to wear his uniform tunic. If he was really concerned for his patient, wouldn’t Bashir dim the lights and turn up the heat? He may be trying to force Garak to acclimatise himself to the standard environmental conditions on the station. # Towards the end of the episode, Bashir takes a runabout into Cardassian Space to the Arawath colony, to find Tain. This raises many questions. First, What did Bashir say to Sisko to convince him to allow the good doctor to burrow a runabout? He probably suggested it as a way to improve Federation/Cardassian relations. Second, how did Bashir expect to waltz into Cardassian space unhindered? (True, Kira and O’Brien did it in The Homecoming, but that required extensive modifications to the runabout.) Perhaps Bashir’s runabout had similar modifications. Third, How did Bashir find Tain’s house? He lives at the Arawath colony. If the last word in the previous sentence means anything, it probably contains more than one domicile. He probably persuaded someone to supply the location of Tain’s house before he arrived. Changed Premesis # There seem to be different versions of the Cardassian drink kanar. At one point Garak imbibes quite a large portion of the stuff from somewhat normal looking bottles. Also, at the end of the show, Tain orders a glass of kanar from his replicator. In both cases kanar looks light blue. Yet in Destiny, Quark brings complimentary bottles of kanar to the quarters of a visiting Cardassian scientist. In this case the kanar is packaged in an exotic, spiral-shaped bottle, and the liquid appears to be quite dark. (I realize that this kanar has gone bad, but if you could tell that the kanar is bad simply by its color, Quark should have known it before ever bringing the bottles in the first place.) Also, the last time we saw a spiral-shaped bottle like those shown occurred during The Maquis Part 2. Sisko rescues Gul Dukat and returns him to the station, after which Dukat indulges in a hearty meal. The scene joins him as he pours a thick, dark, molasseslike liquid from a spiral-shaped bottle. Is this kanar? If so, it's very different from what is shown in this episode. Finally, kanar makes its first appearance in the NextGen episode The Wounded. A Cardassian orders a glass in Ten-Forward. In this scene it's clear. ' 1) The kanar in Destiny may be an older vintage. 2) The version in The Maquis Part 2 may be made using a different method. 3) The clear kanar seen in The Wounded could have missing ingredients.' # Continuing on with this theme briefly, in the scene that features a drunk Garak in the bar, Quark tells Bashir that the Cardassian drank up half his stock. Surely this is hyperbole, but Quark seems genuinely perturbed by this. Oddly enough, in Destiny, Quark bemoans that he's had three cases of kanar sitting in his storeroom since the occupation ended. If the stuff is that hard to get rid of, one would think Quark happy to have Garak drinking up his stock. Quark may have over-ordered on kanar, between this episode and Destiny, to replace what Garak consumed, only for Garak to reduce his consumption, possibly due to medical advice from Bashir. Equipment Oddities # When Garak collapses in Quark's, Bashir orders an emergency trans port to the infirmary. This make sense. A bit later, Garak collapses in his quarters, showing much the same type of teeth-gritting seizure as we witness in Quark's. This time, however, Bashir calls for a medical team instead of an emergency transport. (And yes, they do take Garak to the infirmary.) Why the difference? Was Garak offending the sensibilities of Quark's customers and Bashir wanted to get him out of there as quickly as possible? Multiple uses of the transporter could damage the implant and the surrounding tissue. Continuity And Production Problems # Speaking of Garak collapsing in his quarters and subsequently being taken to the infirmary, if you just watch the episode, it looks like the action moves quickly from Garak's quarters to the infirmary. Bashir calls for a medical team, and the next thing we see is Bashir calling for cardiostimulation, as if they are in an emergency situation. All well and good. But if they are in an emergency situation, why did they change Garak's clothes? In his quarters he is dressed in his own attire. In the infirmary he's in a medical gown. They probably swapped the clothes for a gown as soon as he arrived, in order to better treat him. Nit Central # Kathryn Ramage on Saturday, January 15, 2000 - 2:21 pm: There seems to be a time discrepancy here. Garak says that he turned his implant on for continuous use two years prior to this episode; it sounds as if he did this in response to his exile and the Federation takeover. But the Federation wasn't on the station two years before this. (Using references in other episodes, I don't think it can be more than 15-18 months since the beginning of the series). And if Garak was exiled more than two years ago, before the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor, what was he doing on the station? It was still Cardassian property then - a strange place to be banished to. Garak could be rounding up the time reference, especially if the exile seems longer than it actually was!. # Anonymous on Saturday, May 20, 2000 - 10:34 am: Garak's just had brain surgery. He's tossing and turning, half out of mind apparently, his lymphatic system going all to hell -- on a biobed less than a meter across with NO RAILINGS, NO FORCEFIELD to hold him in. He even leans over the side a couple of dramatic times during his rants and moans. Is willpower holding Garak in that skinny little bed? Have we never heard of people going splat in the 24th century? Is he wearing a parachute? How about designing a biobed that makes some sense in a medical setting? You don't leave a neurogically-impaired patient to roll out of bed after surgery. Mark Stanley on Sunday, May 21, 2000 - 4:05 pm:''Well, it's *not* a biobed -- it's Garak's own bed, which would make it less equipped to deal with a thrashing patient. (I'd bet the biobeds *do* have restraining forcefields.) Perhaps Bashir deemed it unneccessary to restrain Garak, since he was not violent until later, and Bashir thought that shutting down the implant would prevent it from affecting Garak's system. *I* toss and turn more violently in my sleep than Garak did in this episode, and I haven't fallen out of bed since I was six. And last but not least -- would *you* want to try tying Garak up if he didn't want you to? ''Anonymous on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - 10:33 am: A doctor does what's for his patient's own good. If Bashir didn't want to "tie up" Garak (that's a crude way of thinking about bed rails or soft restraints), he should have asked for assistance, from his staff or from ODO, who popped by to interrogate Garak. The doctor told Odo he couldn't allow Odo to interrogate Garak because Garak was too weak from his surgery/treatment. So, he knew Garak's condition. He also states at the beginning of the episode that Garak looked as if he was about to have a seizure. You don't allow people prone to seizures to fall from a height of several feet. I maintain my opinion that it was irresponsible of the doctor, and unrealistic of the show's creators, to have Garak half falling out of that bed with a neurological disorder. Mark Stanley on Wednesday, May 31, 2000 - 4:05 am: Strictly speaking, if Bashir was doing what was for Garak's own good, he would have carted him kicking and screaming back to the infirmary, and into a bed with rails or forcefield restraints. He didn't because Garak refused to go to the infirmary. Garak, as the patient, had a right to refuse what was in his best interest. Lawyer on Wednesday, May 31, 2000 - 7:41 am: There are legal issues here. Any competent (sane) patient has a right to refuse treatment. And one has to assume that Garak was mentally competent despite his neurologically disability. However, once a competent patient has consented to treatment, a doctor cannot take "halfway" measures to protect that patient. If a patient is neurologically impaired, you don't place him in a situation where he might hurt himself, and you don't allow him to hurt himself even if he is big and strong and intimidating to you. You MUST restrain him and prevent falls if you are a doctor. The classic example in the law is: A drunk is on the train. Two porters decide to help the drunk off the train and up a long flight of stairs to the depot. However, halfway up the flight of stairs, they decide it's too much trouble, and they abandon him there. In his stupor, he later tumbles down the flight of stairs, breaking multiple bones. The legal principle: You have no obligation to be a Good Samaritan. However, once you decide to help someone, you don't leave them in a worse position then they were already in. By putting the neurologically-impaired Garak in bed unrestrained, it's conceivable that Bashir was subjecting him to injuries from falls. In other words, putting him in a worse position than he was already in from "the wire." Got it? Mark Stanley on Wednesday, May 31, 2000 - 10:58 pm:''Ah, yes. That makes sense. ' # Palandine on Friday, March 09, 2001 - 11:18 am: Not a nit per se… Bashir walks in to Garak's quarters while Garak is shooting himself up. He asks how much trypticeterin (sp?) Garak has taken, and Garak replies "a mere 30 cc--not nearly enough, I'm afraid." 30 cc is a little more than an ounce. That's a HUGE amount of medicine to be taking. I guess it's true that Cardassians "are made of sterner stuff" if Garak barely feels it. :) ''Anonymous on Monday, March 12, 2001 - 8:32 am:'' That would really depend on the standard adult dosage of the medicine, Palandine, wouldn't it? For example, the standard adult dose of Valium is 5 mgs. A standard adult dose of Pencillin, however is about 500 mgs. Perhaps the standard injected dose of trypticeterin is about 30 cc's. We simply have no way of knowing, since it's not a real medicine, and we don't know how it interacts with Cardassian physiology. Palandine on Monday, March 12, 2001 - 9:46 am: That's fair enough, but you have to keep in mind that a paper clip weighs about a gram. 500 milligrams is therefore the weight of half a paper clip. Drugs like morphine are measured in milligrams. If you took an ounce of straight morphine, it would kill you in fairly short order. It therefore doesn't seem like hyperbole when Bashir said that 30 ccs "would anesthetize an Algorian mammoth." Add to this the fact that Garak put all that tripticederine on top of two and a half bottles of kanar and Garak is apparently quite the tough customer.' # ''Ian Watson on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 11:03 am: At one point, Bashir asks the computer why Garak's lymphatic system (or whatever) was going all wonky. The computer replied something to the effect of "Unknown due to incomplete knowledge of cardassian physiology." Does it strike anyone else as being odd that the /Cardassian/ medical system on a /Cardassian/ station, built by and for Cardassians, would not have complete knowledge of Cardassian physiology? Mark Stanley on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 8:10 pm: No, because the writers thought of that. :A quote from earlier in the episode, Bashir and O'Brien: "...I've been trying to access the old Cardassian medical files, but I haven't been having much luck." "I'm not surprised. The Cardassians did a general systems sweep before they pulled out. The medical files would've been deleted along with everything else." "Is there any way to recover them?" "Maybe. These subroutines don't look anywhere near as bad as the engineering files did. I might be able to reconstruct the data by microscanning the purge trace." "Well how long will that take?" "Two, maybe three weeks?" "Huh. Well that settles that... thank you anyway, Chief." Seniram The Cardassians probably wiped the medical files to increase the punishment effect of Garak’s exile. # Palandine on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 10:33 am: Garak complains that the light is always too bright on the station. Yet, while he's asleep after the implant has been turned off, his quarters are as bright as a K-Mart. Bashir must be a sadist... ;) Anonymous on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 11:19 am: Why does Garak even have such bright lights in his quarters in the first place if he's so d@mn annoyed at them? Seniram It may not be possible for Garak to adjust the light levels in his quarters! # D.K. Henderson on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 5:57 am: Watched this again last night, and something occurred to me. Garak had asked Quark to acquire a new implant for him. However, he told Julian that the implant could not be removed. If it could not be removed, then how did he expect to install a new one? Seniram It might be possible to install the new implant next to the old one, in the same way patients awaiting heart transplants have artificial heart pumps implanted next to their failing hearts to supplement them. # Of course, you can never tell when Garak's telling the truth or not, but more to the point, just who was going to install that new implant for him, since he was trying to keep it a secret from everyone? Seniram Garak would expect to be covered by doctor patient confidentially. # Judging from Julian's description, Cardassian literature must be very tedious reading. I can't remember - did they ever have anything with Julian loaning Garak Earth literature? I remember O'Brien loaning Odo I, the Jury. (Wonder what Garak would have thought of that one?) Teral on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 10:11 am: I think he loaned him "Julius Caesar" some time prior to Improbable Cause. While we think of it as a tragedy, Garak considered it a farce, given how unaware Caesar supposedly is about the plot to assassinate him.'' Josh Gould (Jgould) on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 8:06 pm:'' He says, "I knew Caesar was going to be assassinated in the first act but Caesar didn't realise it till the knife was in his back!" Bokrug, the Great Water-Lizard on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 7:40 pm: Pity Garak (or the writers) didn't read enough of Julius Caesar to realize that wasn't all the play was about. What I want to know is what Garak would think of Antigone. Mr Crusher on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 4:50 pm: Garak never said that that's all the play was about, he just said that he knew Caesar was going to be assassinated in the first act. Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine